According to latest research on the effects of surgical menopause, undergoing the procedure at an early age can cause neurological imbalances in the women. The findings of this research have been released recently and will be presented at the 65th Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Neurology to be held in San Diego in March this year.
Surgical menopause at early stages of a woman’s life involves removal of both the ovaries of the female and also the uterus (hysterectomy). It has been found that those undergoing surgical menopause undergo cognitive decline which is more than those who follow it up with HRT. Hence, this study was done to establish 2 facts:
- Surgical menopause causes cognitive decline
- Surgical menopause followed by HRT causes slower cognitive decline
The Study
The study was conducted on a sample size of 1837 women aged between 53 and 100 years. They were sourced from the Rush Memory and Aging Project, Chicago. 33% of this sample had been through surgical menopause. As part of this study, the participants were made to give tests to measure their cognitive skills, memory and thinking abilities in particular. Other factors such as age and time of menarche, menstrual lifetime and details on use of HRT were also recorded.
Results and Conclusions
The study results were documented and subjected to analysis. The author of the paper, Riley Bovey, has summarized the findings of the analysis as under:
- Earlier the age of the surgical intervention, faster was the decline in memory and cognitive abilities.
- The control group consisting of women who experienced natural menopause did not show any cognitive and memory declines.
- There were also leads that showed the link between surgical menopause and appearance of plaques associated with Alzheimer’s.
